


Queen of Wands (Reversed)

by lionessvalenti



Category: Roswell (TV)
Genre: F/M, Ficlet, Tarot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-07
Updated: 2018-01-07
Packaged: 2019-03-01 11:59:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 462
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13294404
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lionessvalenti/pseuds/lionessvalenti
Summary: Ava fills her post-Zan life with experiences.





	Queen of Wands (Reversed)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Shadowcat](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shadowcat/gifts).



She set up her stand by the side of the road. It was just a few old tent poles holding up a thrift store blanket to keep her skin safe from the desert sun, and a cardboard sign with the words _Fortune Telling! Palm Readings, Tarot Cards, Ouija_ written in thick, black marker.

Charms and promises were a surprisingly lucrative business in the desert. Nothing for a hundred miles from one tiny gas station to another, seeing something different, that isn't the road and dirt, it makes people stop. They're lured to change and the unknown.

Ava pulled her hair, streaked with purple and pink, up into a ponytail, and sat down on her stool and waited for the first customer of the day. It could take a while, so she opened a bag of hot 'n tangy beef jerky ripped a piece off between her teeth.

It took her a long time to realize her life didn't end with Zan, but she didn't know where to take it next. So for now, she had experiences. She was a roadside attraction in a red crop top with cowboy boots (scorpions and rattlesnakes were an ever present threat), sleeping in an extended stay motel, eating out of vending machines and losing herself into a new version of herself.

That's all this was, life. A series of experiences to find yourself, and maybe one day, get there.

Chewing loudly to herself, Ava shuffled the cards, a worn out deck she bought secondhand from a comic book store. When there was no one else around, she pulled her own cards.

Two of Swords, Queen of Wands in reverse, Eight of Cups, The World, also in reverse.

Frowning, Ava flipped over the deck in her hand and snuck a peek at her shadow card. Four of Pentacles.

"Asshole," she muttered and flipped all the cards back into the deck. She was pretty sure her deck had a mind of its own, and it was always calling her on her shit.

Experiences, she told herself. Hiding, the cards called it. Running away. Not actually letting go of everything that had brought her here. Holding onto it so tightly she might break it in her hand. Where the hell was she supposed to go? The cards didn't have an answer for that. There were things the cards couldn't tell you.

Ava hoped that one day she'd get another answer. She flipped through the cards and found her counterpart, the King of Wands. She tapped the card and his face changed to a blurry memory of Zan's image. Every day, he was further away from her.

It was her last party trick.

Maybe soon she'd get out of the desert. Until then... there was a car outside her tent.


End file.
